#abby howard
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I wonder how many people on Tumblr got to the end of Slay the Princess and got punched in the fucking teeth by the self-portrait in the credits when they realised that the game's artist and scenario editor is the same person who drew this:
#gaming#video games#slay the princess#abby howard#spoons the cat#violence mention#death mention#swearing
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I don't think we ever actually posted the trailer for this here! SOUND ON for that good good voice acting!
You’re on a path in the woods. And at the end of that path is a cabin. And in the basement of that cabin is a Princess. (Nichole Goodnight)
You’re here to slay her. If you don’t, it will mean the end of the world.
At least, that’s what the Narrator (Jonathan Sims) tells you. But you don’t have to listen. Sure, you can do as he says, killing the entity in the basement, whether she’s a Princess or... something else. Or you can try to find some other way out of the eternity of choices and twisting paths you and the “Princess” have found yourselves in. You might find, however, that some decisions will reshape the world in ways that only make things worse...
Is the world that tasked you to save it even worth saving?
We've got a demo on Steam and itch that covers the first chapter of the game, and it should run pretty well on most Mac, Windows, and Linux machines! There's achievements in the Steam version too, and it usually takes a little over an hour to get them all!
If fully voice acted visual novels that sit between The Stanley Parable and cosmic horror sound your jam, please check it out, and if you'd like to be notified when it releases, you can wishlist it on Steam.
#slay the princess#horror aesthetic#jonathan sims#dont forgot to wishlist it to feed the mighty algorithm#all i want to do is never have to post again and with your help and wishlists we can make that dream come true#tma#tma adjacent#the magnus archives#magnus archives#abby howard#nichole goodnight#choices matter#the stanley parable#narration#tsp narrator
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Heroes, Gods, and the Invisible Narrator
Slay the Princess as a Framework for the Cyclical Reproduction of Colonialist Narratives in Data Science & Technology
An Essay by FireflySummers
All images are captioned.
Content Warnings: Body Horror, Discussion of Racism and Colonialism
Spoilers for Slay the Princess (2023) by @abby-howard and Black Tabby Games.
If you enjoy this article, consider reading my guide to arguing against the use of AI image generators or the academic article it's based on.
Introduction: The Hero and the Princess
You're on a path in the woods, and at the end of that path is a cabin. And in the basement of that cabin is a Princess.
You're here to slay her.
If you don't, it will be the end of the world.
Slay the Princess is a 2023 indie horror game by Abby Howard and published through Black Tabby Games, with voice talent by Jonathan Sims (yes, that one) and Nichole Goodnight.
The game starts with you dropped without context in the middle of the woods. But that’s alright. The Narrator is here to guide you. You are the hero, you have your weapon, and you have a monster to slay.
From there, it's the player's choice exactly how to proceed--whether that be listening to the voice of the narrator, or attempting to subvert him. You can kill her as instructed, or sit and chat, or even free her from her chains.
It doesn't matter.
Regardless of whether you are successful in your goal, you will inevitably (and often quite violently) die.
And then...
You are once again on a path in the woods.
The cycle repeats itself, the narrator seemingly none the wiser. But the woods are different, and so is the cabin. You're different, and worse... so is she.
Based on your actions in the previous loop, the princess has... changed. Distorted.
Had you attempted a daring rescue, she is now a damsel--sweet and submissive and already fallen in love with you.
Had you previously betrayed her, she has warped into something malicious and sinister, ready to repay your kindness in full.
But once again, it doesn't matter.
Because the no matter what you choose, no matter how the world around you contorts under the weight of repeated loops, it will always be you and the princess.
Why? Because that’s how the story goes.
So says the narrator.
So now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about data.
Chapter I: Echoes and Shattered Mirrors
The problem with "data" is that we don't really think too much about it anymore. Or, at least, we think about it in the same abstract way we think about "a billion people." It's gotten so big, so seemingly impersonal that it's easy to forget that contemporary concept of "data" in the west is a phenomenon only a couple centuries old [1].
This modern conception of the word describes the ways that we translate the world into words and numbers that can then be categorized and analyzed. As such, data has a lot of practical uses, whether that be putting a rover on mars or tracking the outbreak of a viral contagion. However, this functionality makes it all too easy to overlook the fact that data itself is not neutral. It is gathered by people, sorted into categories designed by people, and interpreted by people. At every step, there are people involved, such that contemporary technology is embedded with systemic injustices, and not always by accident.
The reproduction of systems of oppression are most obvious from the margins. In his 2019 article As If, Ramon Amaro describes the Aspire Mirror (2016): a speculative design project by by Joy Buolamwini that contended with the fact that the standard facial recognition algorithm library had been trained almost exclusively on white faces. The simplest solution was to artificially lighten darker skin-tones for the algorithm to recognize, which Amaro uses to illustrate the way that technology is developed with an assumption of whiteness [2].
This observation applies across other intersections as well, such as trans identity [3], which has been colloquially dubbed "The Misgendering Machine" [4] for its insistence on classifying people into a strict gender binary based only on physical appearance.
This has also popped up in my own research, brought to my attention by the artist @b4kuch1n who has spoken at length with me about the connection between their Vietnamese heritage and the clothing they design in their illustrative work [5]. They call out AI image generators for reinforcing colonialism by stripping art with significant personal and cultural meaning of their context and history, using them to produce a poor facsimile to sell to the highest bidder.
All this describes an iterative cycle which defines normalcy through a white, western lens, with a limited range of acceptable diversity. Within this cycle, AI feeds on data gathered under colonialist ideology, then producing an artifact that reinforces existing systemic bias. When this data is, in turn, once again fed to the machine, that bias becomes all the more severe, and the range of acceptability narrower [2, 6].
Luciana Parisi and Denise Ferreira da Silva touch on a similar point in their article Black Feminist Tools, Critique, and Techno-poethics but on a much broader scale. They call up the Greek myth of Prometheus, who was punished by the gods for his hubris for stealing fire to give to humanity. Parisi and Ferreira da Silva point to how this, and other parts of the “Western Cosmology” map to humanity’s relationship with technology [7].
However, while this story seems to celebrate the technological advancement of humanity, there are darker colonialist undertones. It frames the world in terms of the gods and man, the oppressor and the oppressed; but it provides no other way of being. So instead the story repeats itself, with so-called progress an inextricable part of these two classes of being. This doesn’t bode well for visions of the future, then–because surely, eventually, the oppressed will one day be the machines [7, 8].
It’s… depressing. But it’s only really true, if you assume that that’s the only way the story could go.
“Stories don't care who takes part in them. All that matters is that the story gets told, that the story repeats. Or, if you prefer to think of it like this: stories are a parasitical life form, warping lives in the service only of the story itself.”
― Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad
Chapter II: The Invisible Narrator
So why does the narrator get to call the shots on how a story might go? Who even are they? What do they want? How much power do they actually have?
With the exception of first person writing, a lot of the time the narrator is invisible. This is different from an unreliable narrator. With an unreliable narrator, at some point the audience becomes aware of their presence in order for the story to function as intended. An invisible narrator is never meant to be seen.
In Slay the Princess, the narrator would very much like to be invisible. Instead, he has been dragged out into the light, because you (and the inner voices you pick up along the way), are starting to argue with him. And he doesn’t like it.
Despite his claims that the princess will lie and cheat in order to escape, as the game progresses it’s clear that the narrator is every bit as manipulative–if not moreso, because he actually knows what’s going on. And, if the player tries to diverge from the path that he’s set before them, the correct path, then it rapidly becomes clear that he, at least to start, has the power to force that correct path.
While this is very much a narrative device, the act of calling attention to the narrator is important beyond that context.
The Hero’s Journey is the true monomyth, something to which all stories can be reduced. It doesn’t matter that the author, Joseph Campbell, was a raging misogynist whose framework flattened cultures and stories to fit a western lens [9, 10]. It was used in Star Wars, so clearly it’s a universal framework.
The metaverse will soon replace the real world and crypto is the future of currency! Never mind that the organizations pushing it are suspiciously pyramid shaped. Get on board or be left behind.
Generative AI is pushed as the next big thing. The harms it inflicts on creatives and the harmful stereotypes it perpetuates are just bugs in the system. Never mind that the evangelists for this technology speak over the concerns of marginalized people [5]. That’s a skill issue, you gotta keep up.
Computers will eventually, likely soon, advance so far as to replace humans altogether. The robot uprising is on the horizon [8].
Who perpetuates these stories? What do they have to gain?
Why is the only story for the future replications of unjust systems of power? Why must the hero always slay the monster?
Because so says the narrator. And so long as they are invisible, it is simple to assume that this is simply the way things are.
Chapter III: The End...?
This is the part where Slay the Princess starts feeling like a stretch, but I’ve already killed the horse so I might as well beat it until the end too.
Because what is the end result here?
According to the game… collapse. A recursive story whose biases narrow the scope of each iteration ultimately collapses in on itself. The princess becomes so sharp that she is nothing but blades to eviscerate you. The princess becomes so perfect a damsel that she is a caricature of the trope. The story whittles itself away to nothing. And then the cycle begins anew.
There’s no climactic final battle with the narrator. He created this box, set things in motion, but he is beyond the player’s reach to confront directly. The only way out is to become aware of the box itself, and the agenda of the narrator. It requires acknowledgement of the artificiality of the roles thrust upon you and the Princess, the false dichotomy of hero or villain.
Slay the Princess doesn’t actually provide an answer to what lies outside of the box, merely acknowledges it as a limit that can be overcome.
With regards to the less fanciful narratives that comprise our day-to-day lives, it’s difficult to see the boxes and dichotomies we’ve been forced into, let alone what might be beyond them. But if the limit placed is that there are no stories that can exist outside of capitalism, outside of colonialism, outside of rigid hierarchies and oppressive structures, then that limit can be broken [12].
Denouement: Doomed by the Narrative
Video games are an interesting artistic medium, due to their inherent interactivity. The commonly accepted mechanics of the medium, such as flavor text that provides in-game information and commentary, are an excellent example of an invisible narrator. Branching dialogue trees and multiple endings can help obscure this further, giving the player a sense of genuine agency… which provides an interesting opportunity to drag an invisible narrator into the light.
There are a number of games that have explored the power differential between the narrator and the player (The Stanley Parable, Little Misfortune, Undertale, Buddy.io, OneShot, etc…)
However, Slay the Princess works well here because it not only emphasizes the artificial limitations that the narrator sets on a story, but the way that these stories recursively loop in on themselves, reinforcing the fears and biases of previous iterations.
Critical data theory probably had nothing to do with the game’s development (Abby Howard if you're reading this, lmk). However, it works as a surprisingly cohesive framework for illustrating the ways that we can become ensnared by a narrative, and the importance of knowing who, exactly, is narrating the story. Although it is difficult or impossible to conceptualize what might exist beyond the artificial limits placed by even a well-intentioned narrator, calling attention to them and the box they’ve constructed is the first step in breaking out of this cycle.
“You can't go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for people. Otherwise it's just a cage.”
― Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad
Epilogue
If you've read this far, thank you for your time! This was an adaptation of my final presentation for a Critical Data Studies course. Truthfully, this course posed quite a challenge--I found the readings of philosophers such as Kant, Adorno, Foucault, etc... difficult to parse. More contemporary scholars were significantly more accessible. My only hope is that I haven't gravely misinterpreted the scholars and researchers whose work inspired this piece.
I honestly feel like this might have worked best as a video essay, but I don't know how to do those, and don't have the time to learn or the money to outsource.
Slay the Princess is available for purchase now on Steam.
Screencaps from ManBadassHero Let's Plays: [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6]
Post Dividers by @cafekitsune
Citations:
Rosenberg, D. (2018). Data as word. Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, 48(5), 557-567.
Amaro, Ramon. (2019). As If. e-flux Architecture. Becoming Digital. https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/becoming-digital/248073/as-if/
What Ethical AI Really Means by PhilosophyTube
Keyes, O. (2018). The misgendering machines: Trans/HCI implications of automatic gender recognition. Proceedings of the ACM on human-computer interaction, 2(CSCW), 1-22.
Allred, A.M., Aragon, C. (2023). Art in the Machine: Value Misalignment and AI “Art”. In: Luo, Y. (eds) Cooperative Design, Visualization, and Engineering. CDVE 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14166. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43815-8_4
Amaro, R. (2019). Artificial Intelligence: warped, colorful forms and their unclear geometries.
Parisisi, L., Ferreira da Silva, D. Black Feminist Tools, Critique, and Techno-poethics. e-flux. Issue #123. https://www.e-flux.com/journal/123/436929/black-feminist-tools-critique-and-techno-poethics/
AI - Our Shiny New Robot King | Sophie from Mars by Sophie From Mars
Joseph Campbell and the Myth of the Monomyth | Part 1 by Maggie Mae Fish
Joseph Campbell and the N@zis | Part 2 by Maggie Mae Fish
How Barbie Cis-ified the Matrix by Jessie Gender
#slay the princess#stp spoilers#stp#stp princess#abby howard#black tabby games#academics#critical data studies#computer science#technology#hci#my academics#my writing#long post
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Jonny did the Heart Lungs Liver Nerves chant live on stream and it was extremely impressive, especially considering it went on for just over 8 minutes. I felt the need to capture it in it's entirety, plus a little moment after that run ended. And of course, I couldn't not provide a screenshot from the stream, if only for the fantastic art used for the creators/VAs.
#black tabby games#slay the princess#jonny sims#nichole goodnight#abby howard#tony howard-arias#brandon boone#my audio#what a delightful stream#really cool to both hear it acted live#which was extremely good#but the little behind the scenes info was also really cool to learn#also i had to do this because the paranoid is my favorite
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Midnight Pals: Cats
Abby Howard: what if i made a comic all about how funny my cat is
Clive Barker: how funny is this cat
Howard: here, take a look
Junji Ito: [immediately pointing at cat]
Howard: this is my cat
Junji Ito: cat
Poe: cat
Lovecraft: cat
Barker: oh my god you guys
Barker: it’s just a fuckin cat, get over it
Junji Ito: no
Poe: no
Lovecraft: no
Barker:
Barker: okay then
Junji Ito: i also made a comic about my funny cat
Howard: oh yeah? let me see
Ito: here
Howard:
Howard: :|
Lovecraft: you know, i have a funny cat too
Poe: no howard
Poe: we’re not doing this again
Lovecraft: b-but
Poe: no howard
Lovecraft: e-everyone else gets to talk about their cats
Howard: :|
Howard: hold on i’m gonna make a face
Poe: face?
Poe: what face are you talking about
Howard: the slightly wall-eyed face with a flat expressionless mouth
Howard: with just a hint of cheek
Poe: ohh THAT face
Howard: :|
Dan Simmons: ugh cal-arts face
Simmons: guess all the snowflakes draw that face because they’re all PC cowards!!!
Simmons: i see by your confused expressions that you didn’t expect this to be an issue dan simmons cared about huh?
Simmons: nobody knows about dan simmons’ secret squash & stretch walk cycle tumblr!
#midnight pals#the midnight society#midnight society#clive barker#edgar allan poe#hp lovecraft#junji ito#abby howard#dan simmons
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I love Scarlet Hollow, it’s a great visual novel that has been coming out chapter by chapter as it gets developed. If you like horror, mystery, great art, story and music you will love it too!
There was a fanart contest on their discord server and I made this false Romance cover of my Character (Strong built / Book smart) with Wayne, the mysterious veiled character of our dreams... I didn’t win the contest but still had so much fun drawing this.
Also a small animation I made inspired by some other conversation on the discord.
#scarlet hollow#Wayne#abby howard#tony howard arias#ditchlings#fun fact the character i use for my main run of this game is based on one of my d&d character Venke#yes Venke fell in love for this stalky guy because he is stronger
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ok was NOBODY going to tell me slay the princess was made by Abbey Howard?!?!?!? WHY DID I NOT KNOW THIS
im glad she's still making stuff, she was easily one of the first comic artists I ever read back in like...2013 (maybe earlier?) with JSPH, and then The Last Halloween (I'll wait for you,,,)
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Wayne, your head is more a little ghost every time you come by.
I need more Scarlet Hollow episodes. I have many unresolved mysteries and emotions.
#scarlet hollow#black tabby games#abby howard#sketch#sketchbook#sketchbook hollow#fanart#dinosaur sheriff#possumcollege#art by op
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Slay The Princess is good
...Although I strongly suspect that what felt like the most natural first path to me is not a path anyone was expected to take first. I hit what felt like mid-to-late-game content almost immediately.
(Leaving aside for a moment the fact that the game is called Slay The Princess, and looking purely from a roleplaying perspective: why wouldn't you just turn around and leave when a sketchy, cagey voice in your head tells you to go somewhere and kill someone without explaining why it's necessary?
I'm not touching that. I'm not having anything to do with it. I'm hopping the first regional rail nope-train to the nopeboat that ferries you to Nopeville in the Nope District of Nopeington.)
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happy 7/4
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Simpsons Hollow -- Tony and Abby know how to rip your heart out
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REVIEW | "Slay the Princess" | B3 - Boston Bastard Brigade
Slay the Princess is a simple premise, but it’s executed in a way that’s both wild and unpredictable. Read KBD's review to see what makes it a journey worth diving into!
#king baby duck#review#reviews#video games#visual novel#pc#steam#black tabby games#slay the princess#abby howard#boston bastard brigade#black compat
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The Slay the Princess demo has crossed 100,000 total downloads!
Thanks so much to everyone who's pushed us over the edge.
And if you haven't sunk your teeth into the demo or wishlisted the game yet, you knowwwww you want to! Gotta hear all that good good Jonny Sims and Nichole Goodnight voice acting. Gotta look at all the good good Abby Howard art. Gotta read the words I wrote on the computer.
#slay the princess#scarlet hollow#visual novel#horror#indie games#game development#game demo#interactive fiction#jonny sims#nichole goodnight#abby howard
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New Horror 2022 - Day 3
"The Portrait of Sal Pullman" by Lonnie Nadler & Abby Howard (2019)
"You fools, do you not see what this truly is?"
Abby Howard is the ruler of the kingdom of creepy illustrated faces. Er, maybe the architect. The wizard behind the curtain? Oh, the god, the god.
===
"The Black Stone Statue" by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (1937)
"And those were the last words he ever uttered."
Finding scary things deep in the jungle is what it’s all about in adventure stories, but the turn in this one (which is presented right up front) is neat. It’s more of that morality tale we would get from stuff like The Twilight Zone later on.
===
"O Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad" by M.R. James & Abby Howard (2019)
"If you see any more spooks or beasties, please do let me know."
I often fantasize about illustrating text stories if I had the skill, just to visualize what’s in the brain. It’s cool to see Howard taking that on with one of these old timey and appropriately spooky stories.
===
Invasion of the Body Snatchers dir. Don Siegel (1956)
"She's not my mother! Don’t tell her where I am!"
The 30s movies are rough but things start to feel more my pace here in the 50s. I reckon it’s from having watched sitcoms like I Love Lucy and plenty of noir classics so the pacing and style is more familiar. As for the movie, it’s clear why it terrified audiences then and the concept continues to persist. Communism, corporations, conservatives, all a way to address the fear of an insidious enemy.
#horror fiction#short stories#movies#comics#invasion of the body snatchers#don siegel#abby howard#M.R. James#Lonnie Nadler#Mary Elizabeth Counselman#new horror 2022#horror
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Listen I'm a very specific possum and the lovely artist lady who made me would probably not approve of my alternative lifestyle.
#wilson the crime possum#crime#criminal#be gay do crimes#arson#arson <3#be gay commit arson#fraud#crime possum#criminals#abby howard
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Midnight Pals: Squishy Ghosts
Abby Howard: Submitted for the approval of the Midnight society, I call this the tale of the Crossroads at Midnight
King: ah! a faustian tale of devilish bargains, eh?
Howard: no
Howard: it’s mostly like
Howard: what if you met a guy
Howard: who was real squishy
Howard: what if a cornfield was haunted by a squishy ghost
Howard: what if a mattress was haunted by a squishy ghost
Howard: what if you went to the beach and there was a squishy ghost
Howard: here’s a story about a family that raises a lake monster
Howard: you’ll notice this monster is typical of Cretaceous mosasaurs which are TECHNICALLY not dinosaurs but just look like dinosaurs bc of convergent evolution
Barker: oh great, nerd shit
Bogleech: no this is good
Howard: Submitted for the approval of the Midnight society, I call this the tale of the mystery video game set in an economically depressed rural town
Frank Belknap Long: oh I love night in the woods!!
Howard:
Howard: this isn’t night in the woods
Long: but there are furries in it right?
Howard: there’s a possum
Stephanie Rabig: nice
Howard: there’s these things called ditchlings
Koontz: those are cute!
Howard: they lay eggs in paralyzed animals like parasitic wasps
Koontz:
Poe: jesus christ abby why would you say that in front of dean!
Poe: you know better than that!
Bogleech: no this is good
Howard: you know what happens if you hit a ditchling
Howard: well they’re real
Howard: s q u i s h y
Dean Koontz: why would anyone hit a ditchling? :(
Howard: exactly
Poe: cool story!
King: yeah this one was lots of fun!
Koontz: i liked it!
Howard: you all hate me and want me to die
#midnight pals#the midnight society#midnight society#stephen king#clive barker#edgar allan poe#dean koontz#abby howard#frank belknap long#bogleech#stephanie rabig
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